1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing apparatuses and image processing methods for providing a means to a preview display for evaluating quality of an output image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus, such as a printer, that forms an image on a recording sheet with colorant, such as toner, is usually provided with a toner-saving process that reduces toner consumption. Examples of techniques to reduce toner consumption include a technique to reduce an amount of toner to be used by reducing toner density by using a gamma conversion table and a technique to reduce an amount of toner consumption by presetting a narrow range of color-reproduction area for a toner saving purpose to thereby output an image with a low color saturation.
Some printer drivers have a preview function and a printer-setting function that can be used with a display, so that a user can judge, prior to printing, quality of a printed output that the user may obtain with printing conditions set on a setting screen of the display. (See, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-094757).
For a toner-saving processing that yields a printed output whose print quality is easily presumed by a user, a default setting is configured by the user not to provide a print preview, so that a printed output is produced without a print preview. However, there is a different type of a toner-saving process with which a user cannot easily presume quality of an output image and a hue adjustment is necessary in carrying out printing.
When, being set as a default printing mode, the user designates the toner-saving process with which print quality is not easily presumed by the user, the quality of a printed image can be different from that being presumed by the user because a to-be-printed image is not evaluated in a print preview. In such a case, the user has to print out an image again by designating a different toner-saving process to undesirably lower production efficiency.
Even when the toner-saving process, for which a default setting is to show a print preview, is designated, because a preview is shown on the display irrespective of whether or not the user can easily presume the quality of a printed image, the user has to evaluate the quality, when output, of a printed image, resulting in lowering of the production efficiency. It is more efficient to display a print preview when the user cannot easily presume the quality of a printed image, and accordingly, it is desirable that a print preview is automatically displayed to enable the user to evaluate the print quality prior to printing.